LASSE MARHAUG Provoke

 

Lasse Marhaug has been an ever evolving, humble soldier of experimental and noise music for over two decades. His collaborative work with such luminaries as Jenny Hval, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Hilary Woods and many others. Similarly he has been doing a lot of work in graphic design.

His new album is a stable reference to what a quality in noise and experimental music has been. It's solid in terms of production and the contents. There is a lot of work done here that is able to qualify as field recordings as well as drone ambient. The bleakness of the arctic climate shows in the grimness and cold feel that those recordings bear the mark of. 

But there is a different level of how you can approach this album. It's a juxtaposition of many different  elements.

Let's start from the title which contrasts not only with the cover but also with the contents. 

''Provoke'' is a reference to 1970's Japanese art magazine - a different era, a different cultural context makes you think and ask a question whether noise music as a genre plays any role or any subversive role in the music culture. It also poses an important question - whether it also matters. Through digital subscription and the distribution of not only music but information. In the period when we are constantly attacked and bombarded with tonnes of useless spam and the algorithms - there is a very little room to actually educate yourself and also discover something new as human system slowly becomes degraded and bored with novelty.

What is the answer to it? Lasse gives a very personal answer - through his experience of moving away from more urbanised area to the place where nature plays a more important role.

As you listen to his new album - you definitely can have a feel of some sort of unique and subtle humanism and even a romantic approach. Discovering beauty in layered level of drones and some squelches. It has also a bit of Lovecraftian feel, brings you closer to some sort of mystery that is completely absent in the urban environment but also abandoned - since our life in digital world is absolutely and completely transparent. Which can also drag you a bit, as a listener towards more fundamental questions in terms of existence.

A beautiful comeback in the time of despair and tragedy.